New Research Finds Child Sexual Abuse Cases Languish in Criminal Justice System

New research from the UNH Crimes Against Children Research Center finds that
child sexual abuse cases in the criminal justice system take an unusually long
time to be prosecuted and resolved. This is concerning because a prolonged
court process has been shown to be detrimental to a child victim’s recovery
and ongoing mental health.

According to the study, over half of all cases took more than a year from
indictment to conclusion with a third of cases taking more than two years or
were still pending unresolved after two years. The American Bar Association
says the standard time for felony prosecutions should be about six months,
a deadline that was met by just 20 percent of the cases.

The research conducted by Wendy Walsh, research assistant professor of sociology
at the center, is presented in the February 2008 issue of Child Maltreatment
in the article titled “How Long to Prosecute Child Sexual Abuse for a
Community Using a Children’s Advocacy Center and Two Comparison Communities?” The
study analyzed a sample of 160 cases of child sexual abuse in three communities
served by the Dallas County district attorney in Dallas, Texas.

“We may be finding and prosecuting more child molesters, but if we drag
victims through months of anxious waiting, we are not providing true justice
for children. Children can’t really begin to recover fully until the
court process is over,” Walsh said.

Walsh notes that in a national survey, prosecutors attributed the delays to
the special demands of child sexual abuse cases such as preparing child victims
for testimony and obtaining full disclosure of all incidents. Another factor
mentioned was the strategy by defense attorneys to file motions to prolong
the process, which is seen as making a conviction less likely.

“We can do better than this,” Walsh said. She urged judges, prosecutors
and police to make these cases a priority, to set and meet deadlines for each
phase of each case, and to track and publish the amount time it takes to prosecute
cases in various jurisdictions.

“If the media and the public knew how long these cases were taking,
it might provide the kind of accountability that would speed things up,” she
said.

Walsh conducted her research with Tonya Lippert with CARES NW in Portland,
Oregon, Theodore P. Cross with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Danielle M. Maurice at Brandeis University, and Karen S. Davison at the University
of Denver.